Reviewed By Emma
Starring
Viggo Mortensen
Sean Astin
Orlando Bloom
Elijah Wood
Plot
Part two of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The fellowship of the ring has been broken. Frodo and Sam are on their way to Mordor to destroy the ring. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are in pursuit of Merry and Pippin who have been captured by Orcs and are being taken to Saruman.
Critique
Oh my god! It was completely breathtaking. Even now, two days after seeing it, the images are still flashing around in my mind! Like the shot where Aragorn (Viggo Morta-licious!) bursts through the doors at Helm's Deep, water dripping from his hair; or when Legolas hoisted himself under and over onto a horse in full pursuit; or when Legolas grabbed a shield and surfed down some stairs, all the time shotting arrows at the baddies. It was sensational! Everything that I'd already heard about it, in comparison to Fellowship was true. Yes, its longer; Yes, its funnier; Yes, its darker and Yes, overall its a better film than Part 1 (in my humble opinion anyway!)
Computer Generated Gollum is definately the most lifelike CG character I've ever scene on film (shits all over crappy Jar Jar). The scenes of him fighting with himself - his inner battle between evil and pitifull, were some of the most entertaining parts of the movie - and shot brilliantly.
The film flicks between Frodo and Sam's journey to Mordor, Merry and Pippin with the Ents (who were a bit disappointing to be honest - they're supposed to be tree-like but they were too small in my opinion), and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli who join with the men of Rohan to battle the Urak-Hai forces of Saruman. The battle scenes were fantastic. In this installment we are introduces to some new characters. That of, Faramir (Boromir's brother); King Theoden of Rohan and Eoywn (King Theoden's niece and Aragorn's new love interest of sorts). All add new depth to an already action packed, yet character driven story.
In comparison to what I've read of the book, the story matches for the most part, although some artistic liberties have been taken and although, obviously not every aspect of the book is represented in the film, Peter Jackson still manages to bring together the fantastical elements on which the novel incorporates. And the film is already 3 hours long - so it would have been near impossible to include everything! To wrap up, the films cinematography together with a beautiful score captures the audience and transports them into Tolkien's fantasy world with ease.
I loved it (as evident from the glowing review!!!).
Score: 9